| Originally posted on March 25, 2006

Bruce Adams never studied theology and barely went to church 10 years ago, but he said that didn’t stop God from choosing him as a vessel.

The Port Charlotte man said that God asked him to present a message to the world: “Love one another.”

It’s a simple statement, but Adams, 54, said he wasn’t given an abstract sign that instructed him to write a spiritual book. The man who spends his time working at his wife’s business, Daddy Dee’s Ice Cream Parlor in North Fort Myers, said he heard God’s actual voice.

“God spoke to him, now he’s an ice cream man giving advice,” said Steve Allen, Adams’ publicist and president of Talk-Aboutable Media in Newhall, Calif. “After I read it, I think he is the real deal. Why not Bruce? Why not an ice cream man?”

Now Adams’ self-published book “Prophet or Madman,” which was released in September, is in the planning stages of being produced into a documentary that will chronicle his quest to promote his book and spread his message. Film directors from a year-old production company, Enlightened Entertainment in Los Angeles, came to North Fort Myers last month to begin filming. A photographer got footage of Adams at Daddy Dee’s, his home in Port Charlotte and at a church in Tampa where he was a guest speaker.

The self-started production company plans to look into options for releasing the footage, including film, video, Web and cell phone distribution. The directors hope to begin distribution of the ongoing project this year. Allen introduced Adams to people from Enlightened Entertainment.

“Bruce is a very compelling story,” said Christopher Johnson, a producer. “We’re telling the story of a man who’s here to tell a story.” Allen, who started representing Adams a year ago when Adams found him through an Internet search, said he’s trying to get him on major television talk shows to discuss his book.

The documentary will capture all of Adams’ triumphs and setbacks as he attempts to spread his message to a broader audience. “We want to follow Bruce on his path,” Allen said. “Some of this could be disappointments; we’re going to make it real.”

For now, his audience is local people who make stops for ice cream at Daddy Dee’s. Copies of Adams’ book are sold at the store, and he talks to anyone who is interested about the book or spirituality.

Adams’ book venture began when he was ice skating in 1996 with his then 9-year-old son. Music was playing and people were chattering, but suddenly the background noises stopped, he said. “I was relaxing in the moment,” he said. “Then boom, I’m deaf. Then I heard a voice.”

He said that God questioned him about his business pursuits and told him to meditate. What came next is even more incredible. Adams said he “experienced creation” while meditating. He draws an abstract diagram of it in his book.

“I know if anyone told me the stories that happened to me, I wouldn’t believe it,” he said. “I would today but not the way I was then.”
“I can’t deny what happened,” he added. “I said to God, ‘Show me. I don’t need anything in the world just give me understanding.’ ”

The underlying principal in Adams’ book is that religions are not teaching the unconditional love that Christ taught. And Maryel McKinley, a former critic for Awareness Magazine and radio talk show host of “All Talk Recovery Radio” KLSX 97.1 FM in Southern California, agrees with Adams’ point of view.

“I can’t say who God is or that it’s God’s voice, but I can say that Bruce’s relationship and consciousness with God is there,” McKinley said. “It’s a very simple truth (in the book). I think that people should read the book and take what they want from it.”

But Adams realizes that some people will not be as accepting of his book and claims. “I’ve already encountered people who think that I’m crazy,” he said. “You can go away thinking that this guy is crazy. But you’re going to go away thinking about God.”

It’s this notion that will be the principal behind the film, directors said. “We’re asking, ‘prophet or madman’?” said Dana Walden, a producer and director. “We don’t want to eliminate the negative. We want to tell a well-rounded story, which means that his fate is in his own hands. There will be people who think that he’s a madman and people who think that he’s a prophet.”